Ask Why

Pointed to from SimplifyTheRequirements.

From any two-year-old's repetoire of annoying behavior:

Ask "Why?" To the response ask "Why?" Continue until smacked.

This technique is useful in:

• Simplifying requirements and dealing with LeadingRequests
• Turning attributes into real responsibilities on CrcCards

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I used to get caught in the why-cycle with my children until I chose to interpret the question as "tell me more about that". For each "Why?" I would offer a different observation without straying too far from the original point. Each response would elicit another "Why?" until I finally hit on the desired information and got a simple "Oh" in place of why.

Asking "Why store that?" remains a great way to transform attributes into requirements. -- WardCunningham

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But some times, the Customer doesn't believe you need to AskWhy (OnlySayThingsThatCanBeHeard) and in those cases, it can be really difficult to find a way to ask why without asking why.